A few weeks ago, Robinhood initiated my recruiting process by reaching out to me via LinkedIn asking if I was interested in chatting about an open Associate position on the Business Operations team. Of course, I was and had an initial conversation where recruiter asked the typical questions on my background, career interests, etc. that resulted in her saying Robinhood would love to move me to the next step in the process. I think it’s worth noting that in this initial conversation, the recruiter was able to tell me very little information about the position itself that I would be applying for, which I assumed would be filled in by the hiring manager in the next step of the recruiting process. To my surprise, the next step in the process was not speaking to the hiring manager to get more information, but being requested to complete a take home assignment within a 48 hour window since other candidates were in the final stages of interviewing for this position. Obviously, I was hesitant since I did not have an opportunity to know whether this was even a position I would like to pursue but I decided to proceed anyway since every recruiting process is an opportunity to learn and grow, right? Not exactly. The take-home assignment was an extremely open ended prompt asking for a multiple page explanation of a strategy you would propose to help Robinhood grow. I figured this was a chance for me to show I can think strategically and build a compelling case for a solution. Once I completed the assignment within required window, the recruiter said that they would forward my submission to the team and get back within a week with their response. Fast forward one week, and no response, so I followed up to check-in and ask for feedback on my take-home assignment. The next day my email was answered by the recruiter with a generic, we will not be proceeding with your candidacy at this time” and that “it is against company policy to provide feedback. Really? After being asked to complete an assignment for a position I have not even learned enough about to know if I’d like to pursue it, Robinhood cannot even take the time to give me a call with feedback? I get that providing feedback opens the company up to legal liability, and I do wonder if the position was filled by a candidate in the final stages, meaning that my assignment was not even reviewed by the hiring team to begin with. Even so, Robinhood should be able to have a phone call and spend 10 minutes explaining the reasoning, so that my time has not been needlessly wasted. I urge you, Robinhood, to reconsider your recruiting process. Asking candidates to perform a lengthy assessment under time constraints without even understating the role they are doing this for is bad practice. Candidates, beware of a company that asks you to complete an assignment before even meeting with the hiring manager.